The Nobel Prize initially marginalized Friedman but later legitimized the MPS school

Evidence

Friedman’s path to the Nobel was not as seamless as some expected it to be, and he was forced to wait until its eighth conferral in 1976 before receiving the award. The protracted delay was widely perceived to be a product, in part, of the selection committee’s disapproval of his po liti cal advocacy of free markets. It is a plausible explanation; the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences has always served in part as a barometer of the conventional wisdom of the economics profession. Its establishment immeasurably increased the prestige of the discipline’s leading practitioners and commensurately heightened the diffi culty of supplanting their established views. But if Friedman’s initial wait revealed lingering opposition to Chicago economics and laissezfaire approaches to po liti cal economy, the subsequent generation of recipients manifested an astonishing reversal: between 1974 and 1991, seven of the awardees were members of the Mont Pèlerin Society. The creators of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences may at fi rst have wielded it as an expression of implicit disapprobation of Friedman’s po liti cal views, but in the longer term it proved to be an invaluable lever of support. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 514

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader MPS history and the institutional channels (Nobel) through which neoliberal ideas gained professional prestige — related to the reader’s Mont Pèlerin milieu focus. — connects to: Nobel Prizes reflect disciplinary politics and local context, not pure scientific merit — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 480; The MPS was initially excluded from the postwar economics orthodoxy the Nobel committee promoted. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 501; The Nobel prize shaped American economics despite official denials — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 526 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• The MPS was initially excluded from the postwar economics orthodoxy the Nobel committee promoted. #corroborates (0.95) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 501
• Nobel Prizes reflect disciplinary politics and local context, not pure scientific merit #qualifies (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 480
• Nobel economics prizes to neoliberals resulted from contingency plus deliberate agenda #expands (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 499
• The Nobel prize shaped American economics despite official denials #qualifies (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 526